INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE AREAS AND PLACENAMES
Short notes compiled 1 December 2010 by Gregory C. Eccleston from various sources
1. VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGE AREAS
Names of the Aboriginal language areas and dialect areas of Victoria are taken from the latest map illustrated on the website and are reproduced by kind permission of the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages. The information is not suitable for use in Native Title and other land claims.
2. TASMANIAN ABORIGINAL GROUPINGS
Names of the larger groupings of Tasmanian Aborigines are reproduced from the map in David Horton (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, vol. 2, AIATSIS, 1994, p. 1053, and are reproduced by kind permission of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. The information is not suitable for use in Native Title and other land claims.
3. INDIGENOUS PLACENAMES
In the case of indigenous names for large rivers, such as the ArthurRiver in Tasmania, the reader is cautioned against inferring that each separate indigenous name applies to a particular stretch; the indigenous name shown alongside a particular stretch of the river does not imply that that name attaches only to that section of the river.
Placenames are used on a daily basis, yet many of us are unaware of their origins and meanings. On the Australian mainland, vast numbers of official placenames are derived from indigenous languages. Most of them are words that have survived the tumult and cultural devastation brought by contact between Aboriginal and European peoples; words such as Mordialloc and Terang continue to represent place to people, though few people recognisetheir true meanings (respectively ‘short creek’ and ‘leaves’). Other Aboriginal placenames were derived from, or recall, people and events of the contact era, such as the Melbourne suburb of Derrimut – named after the nineteenth century Yalukit-willam clan leader. In Tasmania there was very little communication between Aborigine and early settler, resulting in very few Aboriginal placenames being applied.
Investigating placenames and their origins is a valuable part of Aboriginal language research, retrieval, and restoration. This isparticularly so in south-eastern mainland Australia, where in many places, placenames constitute the largest surviving bodies of indigenous languages in widespread currency. Furthermore, they are an important component of Aboriginal cultural heritage; presenting and describing relationships with land and country; providing clues in the landscape that reveal, among other things, indigenous peoples’ distinct and discernable land tenure. Given their value to cultural heritage and diversity, the community is encouraged to consider adopting dual naming and restoration of indigenous names for places that currently bear a non-Aboriginal name.
4. REFERENCES
The indigenous placenames and the above comments have been taken from the following sources:
Tasmanian Aboriginal Place Names, Curriculum Centre, Education Department of Tasmania, Hobart, 1976;
N. J. B. Plomley with Caroline Goodall, Tasmanian Aboriginal Place Names, Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania, n.d. [1990];
Ian D. Clark & Toby Heydon, Dictionary of Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, Melbourne, 2002;
John Albert Taylor, A Study of the Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) Place Names, Launceston, 2006.